A Sorta Fairytale
by blacksouledbutterfly
Summary: Rachel and Puck have a talk at the wedding of two former classmates.


In truth everyone was sort of surprised when Santana and Brittany said they were going to get married. Well, more that they got married and then wanted to do a sort of ceremony back home where all of their friends are. Ohio still didn't allow marriages between the same sexes but their families were there and that was where they had met. They had met back in Lima in high school so it felt fitting to have a ceremony there with all of their friends.

Everyone knew it was Brittany's idea. She was the one who truly considered the glee club her family and that would want them to be a part of it all. No one, however, expected Brittany to want to turn Rachel and Quinn into bridesmaids. Puck wasn't sure how that worked when there were two of them. Did they both get bridesmaids? Or did one of them have something like groomsmen? It didn't matter, he guessed. Because the fact was half of the fucking glee club was supposed to be part of the wedding.

He had to admit that it was both weird and sort of cool to see two of the girls he had slept with getting married. But he had to admit they both looked really fucking pretty. Brittany was wearing pink and Santana was wearing red. Didn't surprise him one bit they decided not to go traditional and wear white. Why would they? Nothing about their damn relationship had ever been traditional? So he knew that they wouldn't be traditional. And he sort of liked it.

Brittany was all smiles and Santana was a combination of smug and happy. And why wouldn't she be smug? She was getting to marry the girl that she loved. Everyone had always known that she loved Brittany for most of their life. Or, well, most of their high school career at the very least. A lot of them had seen it before she even saw it herself. And Quinn and Rachel? They looked beautiful in their summery white dresses with the spaghetti strap dresses and the flower wreathes in their hair. They looked sort of like little pixies or faeries, their skirts flowing around them. Two girls he had always cared about looking go damn beautiful. It was sort of weird but sort of awesome at the same time.

Brittany had set up a reception there in the field where the ceremony was taking place. It was like a picnic of sorts which was so quirky and adorably innocent just like Brittany herself tended to be. They were all having a shitload of fun by the time the sky started to turn dusky. But he finally notices that Rachel isn't standing with them anymore. She had been standing there for a long while, standing there and laughing, eating, celebrating the wedding of two of their old friends. But when he looks around he can see that she's not there anymore.

He goes up to Santana and congratulates her for what feels like the millionth time before he steps away from the crowd so he can go find the missing member of their little group. And he finds her just out of the sight of the party, sitting in the tall weight that lines the area. Her back is to him, the pink and white flowered crown still resting on her head, her hair twisted and pulled back in a way he can't even explain. She looks like she just stepped out of a storybook, a fairytale princess waiting for her prince. And, well, he's no prince but he'll have to do for now.

He makes his way through the field and she has to hear him even if she doesn't turn her head to look at him. she just stays in the same spot she has been, keeps on looking out into nothingness which should be creepy but she's Rachel and almost nothing about her freaks him out anymore. She's always been a very unusual and strange sort of girl. But not really strange in a very bad way. Strange in a way that definitely grows on people.

Sitting down next to her he takes a long swig out of his beer bottle, bends his legs so his knees are close to his chest, rests his arms on them, his bottle dangling around near his knee. It's a nice late spring day that's only a tiny bit warm but not really summer weather or anything of the sort. But it's nice enough. "What are you doing over here?" He isn't really sure she's going to answer him but it's worth asking.

"Thinking." Her voice is so much quieter than he remembers it being back when they were in glee club together. She was always loud and she almost screamed her opinion. She made sure everyone knew exactly what she thought and felt. A few years definitely could change people though. And, well, things could change them. Or at least make them act differently temporarily.

"What about?" Turning his head he looks at her. She's a little older than the last time he saw her just after graduation but she's still pretty. That definitely hasn't changed. But she looks sort of sad just then. Not the kind of sad where he's worried she's going to break down crying but sad in a quiet, calm sort of a way.

"A lot of things." Her legs are stretched out in front of her, her shoes off of her feet and resting by her hips, her toes wiggling in the tall grass like a little kid. Brittany laughs behind them and Rachel turns her head slowly, looks over the shoulder at the group of people gathered there. Her gaze remains there for a while before she looks back ahead of her. "I'm a terrible friend."

"Why do you think you're a terrible friend?"

"Because I'm jealous."

"Jealous? Jealous of who?"

"Brittany and Santana."

Puck furrows both of his eyebrows as he looks at her, his confusion evident all over his face. "What do you mean you're jealous of them?"

"Not the romantic kind of jealous," she clarifies with a slow shrug of her shoulders. "It's not as though I have any feelings for either of them. I'm just jealous of…well…I'm jealous of _them_."

"Rachel, you're gonna have to make things more clear. I'm not an idiot but I'm not the smartest guy in the world. I don't do subtle well. Especially not after I've been drinking some." And he wasn't piss drunk or anything because he still had to drive but he had been drinking enough that he wasn't exactly going to be able to figure out what she meant unless she spelled it out.

"I always thought I'd have this."

"What? A little wedding in a field?"

"No. No, not this exactly. I mean, not a wedding ceremony in a field or anything. But…I always thought I'd be married. And it's not…I'm happy for them. They deserve to be happy. But I always sort of thought…I thought I'd be the first one to get married."

"That was back in high school. When you were still sure you were going to marry Finn. A lot changed since then. You were seventeen, babe. A lot of seventeen year-olds think they're in love with the person they're going to spend the rest of their life with. How many times did I think I was in love back then? More than I can fucking count."

"I guess." She doesn't seem very convinced though. She just looks down at her lap, runs her hand over the skirt of her dress like she really needs to smooth it down only there's no need to smooth it down at all. But he figures she's just trying to distract herself in some way.

"I just thought I'd be with the guy I was going to marry by now. Actually, I thought I would be married by now. Maybe that sounds silly. I mean, we're still young. But I thought I'd be married and discussing possibly having kids one day. And here I am, single and living alone in New York. Sometimes I feel like I'm not the same Rachel I was here in Lima. I think that somewhere along the way I lost her."

"You didn't lose her. She just grew up. She moved to New York, started a new life. There's nothing wrong with that."

"Is there something wrong with me, Noah?" Turning her head slightly to look at him she cocks her head to the side, looks sort of sad and lost.

"What do you mean?"

"Is there something wrong with me? Am I just the type of girl that can't be loved?"

"Of course not." Puck scoffs it off and lifts up his beer bottle, takes a swig out of it. He has no idea why she would even ask if she was impossible to love. Because despite all of the shit that went on between Rachel and Finn? Somewhere deep down Finn loved her. Not, like, true and never ending love but there was still love there. Love they mistook as forever love.

"Then why doesn't any guy really want to be with me? Why doesn't any guy want to stay with me long-term?"

"Because you're looking for your prince charming." He says it like it's the most obvious thing in the entire world. And that's really what it is. Rachel Berry keeps on looking for that prince, that white knight to come and rescue her, to ride off into the sunset with her and the thing is that no one can really do that. No one is really going to come and sweep her off of her feet and ride off into the sunset.

"What do you mean?"

"You keep looking for this perfect guy. But perfect guys? They don't exist. No guy is perfect. Somewhere inside we're all jerks and we're all going to screw up. That's just how guys are. Why don't you get that? If you keep looking for perfection then you're just going to end up disappointed and alone."

"That's a horrible thing to say, Noah."

"If you wanted someone to sugarcoat shit to make you feel better then you're looking at the wrong guy and you know it. You know that I'm going to call it like I see it. And how I see it is that you want that perfect guy. But babe? This isn't a fucking fairytale. There's no prince. There's no knight in shining armor. You just get what you get."

"Is it so wrong to not want to settle, Noah?"

"No one is telling you that you gotta settle for the worst guy out there. You deserve a good guy. But you gotta stop looking for protection. You gotta look for a guy who will love you no matter what but you gotta stop looking for a guy who is perfect. There's no such thing. No one is gonna not fuck up. No one is gonna like everything you like and just know what to do all the time. Shit doesn't work that way. Guys are just people. And sometimes? People fucking suck."

"How eloquent." She lets out a sound that's almost like laughter but not quite, looks ahead of her, reaches up and tugs on the twist of her hair almost like she doesn't know what else she can do at that moment. "Most girls want a fairytale, Noah. I don't think it's something we can help."

"Fairytales aren't real, Rachel. You gotta just settle for a…sort of fairytale. A guy who isn't fucking perfect but still loves you, still cares about you. That's all you should really want. That's not asking for a lot. And it's not unattainable."

"When did you get so smart?" When she looks back at him she's smiling a little bit even if it's not the happiest, biggest smile she's ever given him. But it's still a nice smile. Because somewhere deep inside of her? He knows that she appreciates his honesty. She may not want to show it but she appreciates it nonetheless. And he sort of can't deny that he's kind of glad that he could at least give her an answer that made her smile. It may not have been the answer she was hoping for but it was an honest one. And what more could he really have given her?

"Took some time but I got to the smart zone. Guess I just had to get out of fucking Lima."

"Noah? Do you think there's a guy out there that will love me? I mean really love me?"

"Yeah. I know there is."

"How do you know that?"

For a few seconds Puck just looks at her and then he leans forward, slants his mouth over hers, kisses her more to make her feel better than anything. No, that's a lie. He kisses her because he wants to, because she looks so very, very beautiful and so much like a fairytale princess he can't help it. "Because it's actually really hard for people _not_ to love you."

Rachel blushes but still despite herself she smiles and rests her head on his shoulder. He isn't really sure he helped her that much but the fact that he got her to smile? Well, it's better than nothing.


End file.
